The descent of man

Article here. Excerpt:

'This belittling attitude towards men doesn’t stop at the Barbie movie. Similarly to how critical race theory focuses its attention on white people instead of lifting up people of colour, critical feminist theory tears down men instead of addressing the real concerns of women. The conversation around domestic violence and sexual assault seldom seems to be about the victims but instead about unrelated males. Look no further than the “Kill All Men” hashtag going around social media after the tragic murder of Sarah Everard. Likewise, the #MeToo movement failed to develop into a support system for survivors. Instead it fuelled a toxic environment around a very sensitive subject that deserves a proper conversation.

The mainstream sentiment around men is not too dissimilar to that of the writer and self-proclaimed misandrist, Pauline Harmange, known for her 2020 best-selling book, I Hate Men. Harmange writes, “What if women have good reasons to detest men? What if anger towards men is in fact a joyful and emancipating path when it is allowed to express itself?”

This misandrist attitude hasn’t remained at the fringes of radical feminist circles; it is now seen as hip and trendy. A few months ago, I decided to hold a social experiment where I asked people “are men important?” and “are women important?”. Whilst the interviewees could easily say that women are important, they just as easily made jokes about men being unimportant. One man took a whole twenty-two seconds before answering the simple question. Even after giving it such consideration, he could only mumble the words: “I guess what traditionally defines men, the traditionally masculine areas of what men do, I think some of that may be important in society, but I think it’s been overly prioritised in society.”'